It’s time to deploy the National Guard to the southern border, says … John Boehner?

posted at 2:41 pm on June 20, 2014 by Allahpundit

He wants the National Guard there not to intercept illegals coming across but to essentially babysit the younger ones who’ve already made it so that the Border Patrol can go back to intercepting people. Still, though: Sending the Guard to the border is something you’d expect to hear from Steve King circa 2007, not John Boehner circa 2014. A Twitter pal blames this on Dave Brat’s big win but I think Brat is less cause than effect. My theory for why he beat Cantor so handily is that the endless stories in righty media lately about thousands of young illegals coming north dovetailed perfectly with his knock on Cantor as a pro-amnesty donor-class crony. Even if Cantor had pulled that race out, the huge surge at the border that Drudge has been touting every day would still be killing Boehner and his hope of passing anything this summer. It’s just too easy to draw a line from Obama’s DACA order in 2012 and the two years of heavy breathing in Congress about comprehensive reform that followed to illegals thinking they’re going to get a pass from ICE if only they can make it here soon enough.

If Boehner doesn’t demand more security now, whatever shred of faith is left on the right that he’ll fight for security as part of a comprehensive deal will disintegrate. So, here we go. From his letter to the president:

The safety of these migrant children is a matter of paramount importance. It is our duty and obligation to enforce the laws of our country while protecting the most vulnerable and ensuring they are healthy and well protected. In that vein, your administration should immediately deploy the National Guard to our southern border. The National Guard is uniquely qualified to respond to such humanitarian crises. They are able to help deal with both the needs of these children and families as well as relieve the border patrol to focus on their primary duty of securing our border.

The State Department must immediately begin discussions with the countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to ensure that apprehended migrants can be promptly and efficiently returned to their home countries. Long processing times for returns are directly resulting in overcrowded conditions in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Health and Human Services (HHS) resources. Additionally, the State Department should work with these countries to design and execute an aggressive communications effort to fully articulate the dangers and struggles children and families will face if they attempt to migrate to the U.S. Finally, the State Department should also enter into conversations with the Mexican government about its ability to secure its southern border. The lax enforcement at Mexico’s borders gives a free pass to immigrants heading north.

Once these immigrants have reached the U.S. and are apprehended, they must be processed by DHS and then the family units must be prepared for return to their home country. Your administration should immediately deploy additional personnel, including Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys, immigration judges and support staff to assist in the processing and removal of these aliens. DHS must find a way to ensure that apprehended adults and their family members do in fact appear for their deportation hearings. We believe that all families should be detained in clean, safe facilities that are in compliance with existing federal statute and case law. Until adequate housing is made available, Alternatives to Detention (ATD) should be deployed to ensure compliance with court appearances and deportation hearings.

The politics of this are poisonous enough that even Obama has to pretend he wants the kids sent back to Central America. If Boehner’s flip was all about Dave Brat, presumably O would be leaping at the chance to say “comprehensive reform is dead in the House after Eric Cantor’s defeat, therefore I must act immediately to ease our deportation policies.” He’s not doing that, though, because as the illegal surge at the border gets more attention, he has to start worrying about red-state Democrats taking an even more severe beating this fall. That’s one reason why I was so curious after Cantor lost to see what O would do now about that deportation order he’s been promising the left for the past few months. Initially I thought he’d hold off until August, when Congress is in recess and the public’s not paying much attention to issue the order. The more news there is about tens of thousands of child illegals flowing in, though, the more I think he might decide to postpone his order until after the midterms so as not to trigger a backlash. Illegal-immigration advocates won’t like that, but who cares? For all the whining they do about the “deporter-in-chief,” the truth is that Democrats are about as happy with O’s immigration policies today as they’ve been over the past four years:

Exit question: If Boehner really cared about border security, now would be a fine time to enact a “security first” bill in the House providing the Border Patrol with more resources, no? The head of the BP’s union says the crisis is now so bad down south that “de facto amnesty is here.” Illegals are being shipped east because border authorities simply don’t have the facilities to house all of them where they’re caught. That’s fertile ground for Boehner to act, if he’s serious about this. Harry Reid will kill the bill in the Senate, but that’s fine. The GOP can use that to attack red-state Dems this fall. So why hasn’t Boehner introduced anything yet?

Blowback

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Comments

What’s wrong with letting a blogger know you appreciate the work they do?

cat_owner on June 20, 2014 at 3:36 PM

There’s a rumor that breitbart is making a big money play for AP, and Noah(pro-amnesty, pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage) was hired not to replace Erika, but to replace AP and take his “RINO-side” perspective. Noah as a replacement for Erika doesn’t make much sense, since he doesn’t match any of her beat. Noah does match what elitist Salem suits might imagine AP’s appeal is. But, AP, for all his atheism/gay marriage support is a genuine conservative on most issues and most importantly doesn’t have contempt for the base when he disagrees. I’m happy to say that I appreciate his work and hope this rumor is false.

sauldalinsky on June 20, 2014 at 4:03 PM

There are also rumors from twitter that Pro-Amnesty, Pro-Abortion Noah called us HotAir types too stupid to use twitter. I say the jokes on him. I, myself, have caught three blue jays in my backyard this afternoon and squeezed them one hundred and forty times, and they screeched what I wanted to say to the world.
I’m running out of blue jays, though.
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Eff you, Noah. I will not comment on your posts. You are part of the problem.

I’m all for militarizing the southern border entirely. I would like to see it completely sealed. There is no better purpose for our military than protecting our sovereignty.

I’m sure Boehnhead’s comments aren’t going to set real well with the Chamber of Commerce. I refuse to get my hopes up on this though as I know he and the other GOPe “leadership” are still ALL FOR passing amnesty (regardless of what they want to call it).

Oh, and I absolutely refuse to use Facebook or Twitter, and I never will. I hate them both. And it’s not that I’m “too stupid” to use them. I hate them because I will not allow ANYONE to have that much information about me, ever.

I still post here because it’s still somewhat anonymous. If that ever goes away, I’ll gladly dump this as well. Seriously, with all the fascism being thrown around by the thought police, I find it amazing anyone still uses FB or Twitter. Say one wrong thing they don’t like and they’ll ruin your life. Nope, not happening.

I used to think so, but this issue appears to be turning toxic even for Ds. Only 31% approve of Dear Leader on immigration, which would seem to indicate only the hard left.
cat_owner on June 20, 2014 at 3:39 PM

You said Dear Leader. Not GOP. The GOP has a different name. They are relying on your disgust of Obamacare to sail through. Amnesty is still going to be pushed in August. This will not stop them. Eric Cantor’s defeat means nothing. They don’t even care if they lose elections. Boehner as a cushy K Street job lined up. It’s about CoC cash. Amnesty will be the law of the land. Tom Donahue threw down the gauntlet

Y’all are making me really have a great laugh today! Thank you. Allow me to pose two points for everyone’s consideration. Point #1 Do you all really think HA cares about the comments section here. Point #2 Would not surprise me in the least if we all wake up one morning and the comments section is gone! ; )

Wow. That’s the kind of says-it-all-in-a-nutshell story that historians love for a monograph or book chapter opener. Title along the lines of “The New Majority Minority, or How Racial Preference Politics Lost Its Soul.”

Y’all are making me really have a great laugh today! Thank you. Allow me to pose two points for everyone’s consideration. Point #1 Do you all really think HA cares about the comments section here. Point #2 Would not surprise me in the least if we all wake up one morning and the comments section is gone! ; )

Bmore on June 20, 2014 at 6:05 PM

Two points: 1. I would hope they care. 2. I’ve never seen Allah, Ed, Erika, or MKH disparage their commenters.
I hope to wake up and find Noah Rothman writing where he clearly belongs, Huffingpaint Post, or hosting MSNBC.

How do you keep the tweeting blue jays from biting? This is getting downright dangerous.

Y’all are making me really have a great laugh today! Thank you. Allow me to pose two points for everyone’s consideration. Point #1 Do you all really think HA cares about the comments section here. Point #2 Would not surprise me in the least if we all wake up one morning and the comments section is gone! ; )

Bmore on June 20, 2014 at 6:05 PM

Point #1, Yes they do. Why? Because: Point #2, comments drive page views, which in turn drive advertising revenue. Kill the comments section and you diminish views, lowering ad revenue. And we all know it’s about the money at bottom line, not the ideology.

While you are contemplating that BonBon, go ahead and start the treason charges however you have to with your processes, against obumbo. What he’s done and not done with regards to our sovereignty and the southern border is treasonous. No way around it, even if your retarded RINO a$$ won’t admit it.

WH is planing to throw a bunch of money at Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador to stop the “root causes” of migration, which is a bunch of BS. But at least they are also saying they’ll make it clear now that the illegals won’t be eligible for DACA. They’re also providing money to those countries to help them repatriate the ones we send back.

Might used to have been the model. Not like that anymore. The majority of page views don’t come from the comment section.

Cheese Wheel on June 20, 2014 at 6:33 PM

Lolz! Funny. I don’t feel in danger. Endangered perhaps. ; )

xNavigator on June 20, 2014 at 6:38 PM

See my reply to de rigueur. Commenters account for only a miniscule amount of page views. Hence all the new buttons and such. Like it or not when Salem took over the business model shifted. This is not the most Conservative site anymore. And for a reason that has 0 to do with the commenters.

Sensor’s to track the NVA/VC on and near Ka Shan Marine base, to track the NVA/VC and Russian and ones of China advisors on the Ho Che Mein trails. In a tripple canopy jungle, in monson rain and in a war zone with NVA trackers on our ass as soon as the traitors in Sigon sent our LZ cordinates to Hanoi.

We did track them, we did count them, we did interdict them, we did cost the Russians and the ones of China Billions in ammo, suppplies and men as they came down the trails.

That with the tech of the time. Now you got the NSA, you got google maps, you got sonic, you got night vision, you got lots and lots of targets, you got Sandia Lab and its ability to track the smells out there and know exactly what is each back pack, you got language phone intercept that can translate any languge in real time and know what these coyotes etal are saying, you know the routes they take, you know all but the truth, as you only know your one source of power,,,, lies.

You guys seem to be awfully hard on Noah…yeah, sure he made an impolitic remark on twitter…and yeah he seems to write like a squish..but really, that MIRV thing he wrote about was actually good. Namely that while obama busies himself dismantling our defenses, the chi-coms are gong all MIRVy

Okay, he was a little wrong about SDI…which as you can read in this wiki (surprisingly balanced)

350 to 500 illegals from futher south in S. America sleep over night in a Mexican gov. shelter. They are allowed to climb on top of the first freight train out, there are 8 to 10 trains a day.

Every one loaded down. Each day at the end of the trip off the train and to a “Mexican Govt. shelter” for food, water, health care.

Back on the train next day, 8 to 10 days of this. Last deal pay the Mexican Drug Cartel operated coyotes the border crossing bill and sign the death warrant IOU and in the boat, across and in the hands of Obama’s hand cuffed border patrol and then on a Greyhound bus to any where America and at tax payer expense.

It was a plan, they belive that Americans will roll over and allow their freedom done in, the Constitution and the rule of law trashed and so far they are sickly oh so sickly correct in every way.

You know what is weird? DHS was soliciting bids for venders to accommodate 65,000 minors……….back in JANUARY So it seems clear the recent massive incoming of illegal minors was no coincidence. Im surprised this has not been on the news yet unless I missed it.

Exit question: If Boehner really cared about border security, now would be a fine time to enact a “security first” bill in the House providing the Border Patrol with more resources, no? The head of the BP’s union says the crisis is now so bad down south that “de facto amnesty is here.” Illegals are being shipped east because border authorities simply don’t have the facilities to house all of them where they’re caught. That’s fertile ground for Boehner to act, if he’s serious about this. Harry Reid will kill the bill in the Senate, but that’s fine. The GOP can use that to attack red-state Dems this fall. So why hasn’t Boehner introduced anything yet?

If the Guard is Nationalized, it is subject to the Posse Comitatus Act, and forbidden to engage in Law Enforcement.
To send them as extensions of their Governor, but without the State paying the freight, would require Congress to reimburse (Grants In Aid) the States of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California for the costs involved in stationing their respective National Guard units along their borders with Mexico. Then, they could enforce State Law, under the command of the Governors, and their Adjutant Generals.

It was a plan, they belive that Americans will roll over and allow their freedom done in, the Constitution and the rule of law trashed and so far they are sickly oh so sickly correct in every way.

APACHEWHOKNOWS on June 20, 2014 at 7:27 PM

I used to read political thrillers that didn’t have as frightening a consequence as our nation slowly bleeding to death as it is right now. I can’t stand the thought that I used to enjoy those fictionspredictions. I hope to awake from this nightmare…

My poor children may not know the awe with which I once viewed this nation… not unless I make sure they learn from me.

Two points: 1. I would hope they care. 2. I’ve never seen Allah, Ed, Erika, or MKH disparage their commenters.
I hope to wake up and find Noah Rothman writing where he clearly belongs, Huffingpaint Post, or hosting MSNBC.
How do you keep the tweeting blue jays from biting? This is getting downright dangerous.
Cheese Wheel on June 20, 2014 at 6:33 PM

I would hate to see Allah leave. He is a writer of uncommon talent, even if he isn’t the most conservative blogger around (though, sadly, with the way things have been going here, he may be the most conservative blogger remaining at HotAir.)

Noah Rothman, who is pro-amnesty, pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage and pro-GOP establishment, isn’t even close to being an eighth as talented as Allah, and I don’t feel bad pointing that out, given that self-superior Noah has no problem disparaging HotAir commenters on Twitter.

I also want to point out that the comment section is a huge draw for readers. I often spend more time reading the comments than I do the official blog postings. The comment section here is among the best and is always filled with witty, entertaining postings. I often learn more from the comments than I do from the actual blog.

So, Noah can carry on tweeting with his liberal buddies, feeling too good to interact with “commenter folk” and disparaging his readers. If Allah does leave, it may be a smart move for him. Hopefully HotAir wakes up and hires an actual conservative blogger next.

You can do it Boehner, and I totally approve of this. But it will not buy you one iota of benefit with respect to you passing an amnesty. The only immigration reform that you can accomplish right now with my support is simply enforcement of current law. Why? Because if the federal government is not enforcing the current law, I do not trust it to enforce any new laws except for the parts that I do not approve of. Those parts will be abused to the absolute limit and then doubled down upon multiple times.

There are also rumors from twitter that Pro-Amnesty, Pro-Abortion Noah called us HotAir types too stupid to use twitter. I say the jokes on him. I, myself, have caught three blue jays in my backyard this afternoon and squeezed them one hundred and forty times, and they screeched what I wanted to say to the world.
I’m running out of blue jays, though.
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Eff you, Noah. I will not comment on your posts. You are part of the problem.

Cheese Wheel on June 20, 2014 at 4:48 PM

EFFING GOLD! ‘You really captured the spirit of the thing’. Well Done.

What the Breitbart article failed to mention, that other sites did, is that Lawrenceville is Democrat, and it’s the democrat Mayor and zoning board screaming the loudest. These are the same people that want the *little brown people* here in droves, but they don’t want to live with them.
These filthy hypocrites should be forced to adopt these *children* and raise them on their dime.

The thing that irks me is that it seems as states have no ability to do anything whatsoever about this? Why aren’t the governors of Arizona, Texas and other states not sending officials, national guard and whomever else it takes simply to assist and oversee?

I understand that certain judicial rulings occurred that scaled back laws and certain powers of law enforcement, but at what point did it get that states had zero jurisdiction over the border patrol within their states? Are state officials not allowed inside even? What is the deal exactly?

I hope to wake up and find Noah Rothman writing where he clearly belongs, Huffingpaint Post, or hosting MSNBC
Cheese Wheel on June 20, 2014 at 6:33 PM

You ought to start a blog so you can censor it.

I would hate to see Allah leave. He is a writer of uncommon talent, even if he isn’t the most conservative blogger around (though, sadly, with the way things have been going here, he may be the most conservative blogger remaining at HotAir.)
bluegill on June 20, 2014 at 8:53 PM

Allah may be a Cheetos eating, beta male, garbage television addicted man-child but he’s no fool and he’s actually an excellent writer: He gives the people that sweet, sweet specific type of outrage that so many of you demand: the victimization, the betrayal, the all is lost and the cards are all stacked against you so you might as well throw up your hands and rant here memes… He’s got it down to a science. One part McCain, a couple of jiggers of establishment, a dash of Romney or a pinch of Ryan, mix with equal parts hidden agenda, conspiracy theory and Amnesty and bingo: the same reaction as the night before and the night before that.
Noah will either catch on like Allah has and adapt or move on. Perhaps folks here wont need to be in lockstep with everything and cut him some slack to show that we are better than the other side…Maybe this is part of the process of refinement.

I was so curious after Cantor lost to see what O would do now about that deportation order he’s been promising the left for the past few months. Initially I thought he’d hold off until August, when Congress is in recess and the public’s not paying much attention to issue the order.

Its a common knowledge that Obama displays all the signs of Narcissism.

We have throughout our history had many great leaders of industry and politics, even presidents, who have been narcissist to one degree or another. Narcissistic people tend to see themselves as better than others, who know what needs to be done, but they also have an inability to accept that they might be wrong or could fail. They tend to take credit when things go right and push blame onto someone else when things go wrong. They are very good at shielding themselves from blame and surrounding themselves with people that share the narcissist’s vision. Likewise they will distance themselves; don’t know them, they were not who I thought they were, and we have the coined term associated with Obama of “throwing them under the bus”.

Being a narcissist is not always bad or dangerous even if they leave a wake of damage in their path, but a psychotic Narcissist is dangerous and when they hold the power of a sitting president, extremely dangerous.

I don’t like Harry Reid, but I suspect that he is doing a lot more than just being an butt blocking bills. It will be interesting history someday.

When a narcissist feels threaten and sees no way out they turn to revenge on those they perceive are causing his failure.

I have been watching Obama for narcissist end game trait to appear. The summer of 2010 he discovered that he was not the great negotiator he saw himself as being seemed to be a start point.

He almost collapsed in the summer of 2011. That tense vacation, delayed decisions, joint Session of Congress demanding to pass a law that had not even been written, on the one topic that he could safely address among a list of failures, and that awkward endless campaigning that followed.

It is no secret that Michelle will divorce him as soon as he is out of office. The family pictures are gone from the oval office. He is besieged with scandals; his own party is distancing themselves from him, Congress refuses to give him what he wants, the American People are rejecting him and he is now seeing the possibility that we will take the senate from him and when that happens, He knows that he most likely will be removed from office. Even if that would not happen, if he thinks it might, he will act as if it will happen.

I think when he told us he had a pen and a phone that was the shot across the bow to tell us that he will punish those that he feels are the reason he failed. But that punishment will at the same time be a last push to do the things he wants to do but has been unable because of laws, Congress, conservative moral and religious values that he does not share.

There is another layer to look for as well. Narcissism has its roots in childhood. Obama was a classic situation to create the behavior. Some of what I see him embracing now, of acting on, reflect his youth values; the drugs, homosexuality, foreign status, anger at authority, all seem to be present in what he seems to be interested in now. They are of course the negatives that controlled his young life that he now has the power to do away with as he wished he could then.

Y’all are making me really have a great laugh today! Thank you. Allow me to pose two points for everyone’s consideration. Point #1 Do you all really think HA cares about the comments section here. Point #2 Would not surprise me in the least if we all wake up one morning and the comments section is gone! ; )

Bmore on June 20, 2014 at 6:05 PM

Hugh Hewitt and Salem Communications are on our side about as much as John McCain and the Chamber of Commerce.

Many liberal websites (including National Journal and Time) have dropped their comments section during recent weeks. That said, I don’t see HA dropping its comments section. Would you frequent HA if the comments section were eliminated? Would you still give HA hits if all it only consisted of columns by Allahpundit, Ed Morrissey and Jazz Shaw? Neither would I.

It is a fact that this was the best comment section of any “conservative” blog. And that’s not speculation. There are clear reasons why this site was the best.
1. the formatt – no “likes” and dumb competition for upvotes. and the block quotes create a dialogue.
2 Allah and Ed’s sour and sweet combination.
2a. Allah – who is the best blogger in the world even though he’s wrong all the time.
3. the closed membership
4. the roots – MM, Captains Quarters and disaffected LGFlers. This blog is internet history.
5. The Ban Hammer and conservative culture kept it from becoming an AoS insult fest(which has it’s place).

And for those that weren’t reading in 2008 or 2012, trust me , this place heats up every 4 years and gets wild. It’s much better then any reality TV show. – Of course that’s if Salem doesn’t junk it.

Anyway, it’s called HOT AIR because of the comments. Just look at the graphic of the guy shouting: that’s a commenter, not one of the very talented, but tepid, bloggers.

A border security bill should have been passed by the Republicans years ago. Had that been done, we would be having a very different conversation today.

You want to know why Republicans are always playing defense? This is a perfect example. They lead with demographic political tinkering instead of a broad, principled approach.

Boehner’s now learning what most of us knew years ago. These policies create a crisis of unparalleled proportions which are destroying our security, ruining our communities and overburdening our social program that are already stretched to the maximum.
This is why people hate Congress.There isn’t a smart, principled person with foresight and courage amongst the entire group of them.

Coming from a man that never uttered the words “Secure the Boarder” in 8 Years!

Jpalm32 on June 21, 2014 at 7:40 AM

Yes, the same man who knew this was coming and was all set to use it as an excuse to push an amnesty bill through the House. He’ll still do it of course, but this sort of kabuki is going force him to miss a few tee times and push the drinking off until after statements to the press.

The safety of the children is not paramount. Finding out which adults are sending them and why is more important. Nowhere in the world do minors just pick up and migrate across national borders. Other authorities are directing and moving them.

e safety of the children is not paramount. Finding out which adults are sending them and why is more important. Nowhere in the world do minors just pick up and migrate across national borders. Other authorities are directing and moving them. virgo on June 21, 2014 at 12:19 PM

The man began to walk away, when Officer Colendula Green said, “At that time the complainant advised he didn’t. As the unknown male proceeded to turn around he turned back towards the complainant advising the complainant “I bet you don’t have one of these”, pointing a gun in his direction. At that point the complainant pulled out his weapon and began firing shots.”

The shooting victim left and was later picked up by ambulance at the Pines apartments.

Unidentified migrants who died entering the United States were buried in mass graves in a South Texas cemetery, with remains found in trash bags, shopping bags, body bags, or no containers at all, researchers discovered.

In one burial, bones of three bodies were inside one body bag. In another instance, at least five people in body bags and smaller plastic bags were piled on top of each other, Baylor University anthropologist Lori Baker said. Skulls were found in biohazard bags — like the red plastic bags in receptacles at doctors’ offices — placed between coffins.

“To me it’s just as shocking as the mass grave that you would picture in your head, and it’s just as disrespectful,” said Krista Latham, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Indianapolis.

Bodies that were not already skeletonized before burial were found in varying states of decomposition, Baker said.

The bodies are believed to have been buried by a local funeral home since 2005 in the Sacred Heart Burial Park in Brooks County.

The ‘liberal political class’ dominating Britain is out of step with the mass of the electorate on immigration, major study warns.

By John Bingham, The Telegraph:

Politicians have contributed to a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment because of a widening “disconnect” between the “liberal political class” and public opinion, the UK’s most authoritative barometer of public opinion suggests.

Almost half the population now believes that a decade of mass migration has not only harmed the economy but undermined “British culture”, the annual British Social Attitudes survey shows.

The “persistent public anxiety” over immigrant numbers is something the main political parties “ignore at their peril”, the Government-funded study warns.

Significantly, the study — which has been charting public opinion for more than 30 years — found signs of a rejection of a multicultural notion of Britishness.

In striking contrast with a decade ago, when the survey showed rising acceptance of minorities, increasing numbers now single out factors such as being born in the UK or having “British ancestry” as important elements of “British” identity.

The news led to warnings on Monday that a failure to slow the pace of immigration to Britain will increase racism.

The apparent reversal in attitudes comes after a decade of mass immigration following the expansion of the European Union.

There are now around 2.5 million more foreign-born British residents than 10 years ago, including just over a million people from Poland and the seven other countries which joined the EU in 2004.

More than eight out of 10 people now support a major tightening of rules on access to benefits and curbs on overall immigration — but the study points out that EU rules would make it “very hard” for the Government to deliver on this.

“There is a clear, and intense, demand for action on the issue from one section of the electorate, a demand politicians ignore at their peril,” it concludes.

“Yet responding to the concerns of the voters worried about immigration today risks alienating the rising sections of the electorate whose political voice will become steadily louder in elections to come.”

The warning comes after the UK Independence Party’s triumph in the recent European elections, a development the study said had been influenced by a serious “disconnect” between the wishes of voters and the positions of the main parties.

It also comes amid a political row over moves by Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, to require schools to teach “British values”.

When asked what made people “truly British” the survey’s participants singled out distinct characteristics. While the importance of speaking English has long been strong, support has now reached a level of near unanimity.

The number of people citing it as a key ingredient in Britishness rose from 85 per cent to 95 per cent between 203 and 2013.

The number citing being born in Britain as an important or very important element, edged up from 70 per cent to 74 per cent, reversing a downward trend in the previous decade. Almost eight out of 10 said it was important for people to have lived most of their life in the UK before being included — up more than a tenth in a decade.

Meanwhile, just over half (51 per cent) said it was important to have British ancestry to be considered British, up from 46 per cent in 2003.

Overall, the study, published by NatCen, an independent social research group which is funded by the Government, found that 77 per cent of people want immigration to be cut, including 56 per cent backing a large reduction.

The study said 47 per cent believe immigration has had a negative economic impact, compared with only 31 per cent who see it as positive. Forty-five per cent said they thought immigration had “undermined British cultural life”, compared with only 35 per cent who believe it has enriched British culture.

Almost one in five people believe immigration has been “very bad” both culturally and economically — outnumbering those who say it had been “very good” economically by six to one.

The study warned: “Policymakers and the interest groups they deal with regularly tend to be drawn heavily from the liberal end of the spectrum, creating a potential for disconnect and distrust between a more liberal political class which accepts immigration and an electorate among whom many find it intensely threatening. This combination of persistent public anxiety, the disconnect in attitudes between political elites and voters, and constraints on policymakers’ ability to respond have helped to fuel the rise in support for Ukip.”

It added: “In many areas of migration policy, constraints on current policy mean it is more liberal than even the most pro-migration parts of the public would like, generating widespread public discontent which is hard to address.

“For example, EU rules make it very hard for the government to restrict migrant numbers, or regulate migrant access to the welfare state, in accordance with the wishes of most of the public.”

Frank Field, the former Labour work and pensions secretary, said the shift in attitudes was a “huge condemnation” of the immigration policies of successive governments and said it would be “unforgivable” for politicians not to respond.

“One of the things we must do in drawing up our red and blue lines for renegotiating in Europe is that we have to have control of our borders again.”

Be sure to continue to read it all. American politicians had better awakened PDQ.